We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Loretta Markevics a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Loretta, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

I became a small business owner for the first time after spending years as a senior executive at global advertising and PR firms. I can safely say that being an entrepreneur is the hardest job I’ve ever had and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I started two businesses back to back since joining the small business founder/owner community in summer of 2020: Sēd, a marketing communications agency that supports startup businesses and The Farmers Finds, a subscription business that helps farmers-market-born startup brands. The Farmers Finds was an accidental idea that is a true labor of love. After leaving my job during Covid to start my agency, I decided that since I was finally untethered from a desk it was time to take that long-awaited road trip across the country. For over a year, I traversed the US and because many businesses were closed, visited many farmers markets. I have always loved famers markets because I love to cook. I also saw value in chatting with some of the small business owners, considering the fact that my newly launched agency was supporting startup brands. So, I spoke to hundreds of vendors under countless farmer’s market tents during the course of my journey. During those conversations, I heard passionate stories and also uncovered an opportunity to help. When I asked folks if there was some kind of national digital platform to help them sell more of their fantastic and original products, they said, “No.” I was surprised that these gems of ideas and delicious products were not being supported on a digital/ecommerce platform by their local markets or by an existing platform. So, I decided to put my marketing acumen to good use to help these farmers-market-born-brands find a following and trial beyond their home markets. We launched The Farmers Finds in beta in mid-October 2021 and through our efforts have driven trial and repurchase for amazing farmers market brands.

We directly impact the small business community with every sale. We are helping these businesses expand their footprint to reach customers they never would have otherwise. Our customers come from across the US and these businesses are now seeing customers from across the country not only trying their products, but being driven to them for repurchase. We also enable them to maintain business when markets close during the winter. A huge portion of their income goes away once markets close. Additionally, we provide marketing advice and promotion of their products directly. When we create publicity for The Farmers Finds or run paid advertising, we feature their products in the ads. They are able to post on their websites that they were in Martha Stewart Living or seen on local broadcast outlets. It helps credential them by extension, which they absolutely love and it helps drive their business at the markets and on their own e-commerce sites. Overall, we are in the business of supporting startup businesses and we are loving that these brand owners and founders feel supported. Most of them ask us why we do it if we aren’t making a lot of money and we tell them, we just really want to help them. And we mean it.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I am a native New Yorker. I’ve spent my entire career in advertising and PR strategically advising leading global brands on marketing strategy and developing creative marketing campaigns to support them.

I come from a family of entrepreneurs and always saw myself eventually having my own business, so my goal was to learn as much as possible about as many things as possible in order to advise clients on how to harness the power of the entire marketing mix together to achieve success. My integrated marketing background was intentionally built by working at advertising agencies, an integrated marketing agency, branding agency, and most recently, at PR agencies.

Working at an agency is hard work and my concept of great ideas has been shaped by many late nights at the office spent with creative geniuses I was fortunate enough to share company with.

Starting my own agency was instigated by the pandemic, but building my own business has always been in my heart.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

Positioning: The battle for your mind – Jack Trout David and Goliath – Malcom Gladwell
The Steve Jobs Way – Jay Elliott
The Big Moo – Seth Godin
Find Your F*ck Yeah – Alexis Rockley
Traction – Gabriel Weinberg and Justin Mares

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Today, my entire livelihood is a result of a pivot in life and work. I worked in big global ad agencies and PR firms for over twenty years. I made it to the C-Suite as the Chief Creative and Strategy officer for a global PR firm and I am proud of that accomplishment. That said, it has never been an option for me to be satisfied with what is right in front of me. It is just how I’m built. I’m always seeing the opportunity ahead and plotting a course to seize it. As many people did, I received a jumpstart to begin the journey to that next opportunity as a result of the pandemic.

I always wanted to start my own agency, but it was a pipe dream. Over the years I spoke about it like a girl in a bad rom-com who held on to a postcard for years hoping one day to get there. The only thing missing that would get me on that plane to destination, “My Own Agency,” was what my niche would be. I found it during the pandemic. I was counseling large global brands on how to pivot their marketing communications during that challenging time and little did I know, in the process, I was accidentally planning a pivot of my own. Startup brands were jumping into action to save the day for us all providing telehealth services, video conferencing, food delivery and the like and in witnessing their take-charge approach, it all clicked for me. My brand of marketing is provocative and I like taking risks. These companies and brands were doing everything I was counseling big brands to do, but were too afraid to act on. I realized at that moment that I needed to work exclusively with startups. They were bold, risk-averse and innovative and that approach in the context of brand building is what my professional reputation was built upon. It made sense. I had always counseled startup brands during my time at agencies, but they were never the priority for big agencies. They would be at mine. I decided to leave the big agency world and in September 2020 I started my own integrated marketing agency, Sēd.

While building my agency brand, I decided to take a cross country road trip with my family, since I was now an “entrepreneur” and untethered to a workplace and I wanted to visit some hot startup cities. Sēd was basically launched and built from the front seat of an SUV and in unfamiliar living rooms of AirBnBs. It was on this trip that another pivot occurred.. I had the idea for my second business, The Farmers Finds. When we traveled across the country for over a year, we visited dozens of farmer’s markets along the way. After speaking to the many small business owners I encountered at these markets, I realized they did not have a national platform that features only farmer’s market-born brands on which to sell their goods. So, I started it. The Farmer’s Finds was launched in October 2021. My marketing expertise, coupled with the great products from these makers, so far has spelled success. We are driving business to the websites of these makers and creating sales opportunities among people who would never have discovered them otherwise.

So, my professional pivot led me to realizing a dream of starting my own agency and creating a consumer brand of my own in the process. And personally, our road trip led me to a bi-coastal life between NYC and San Diego. I guess that’s three pivots!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.thefarmersfinds.com
• Instagram: @thefarmersfinds
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/farmersfinds
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lmarkevics/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@thefarmersfinds7469
• Other: My marketing agency website is www.sedcommunciations.com if you are a startup looking for help with marketing communications.